This invention is directed to an escutcheon component system placed around a plumbing pipe wherein the plumbing pipe exits a wall. Included in the system are an escutcheon and an insert. The insert composed of a flexible material is placed around the pipe and then compressed within a flange on the back side of the escutcheon to frictionally engage the escutcheon plate to the pipe.
Escutcheons are commonly used in the plumbing industry to cover a generally irregular and/or oversized hole formed in a wall. The hole is so formed to allow a pipe or fixture component to project through the wall. Normally escutcheons are placed around pipes which feed hot or cold water to a faucet or other fixture and a common water pipe to a shower head or the like. Further, escutcheons are used around taps or other control fixtures normally found associated with showers, urinals and the like.
Presently two types of escutcheons find common use. Both of these generally have a metal escutcheon plate having a central hole. The escutcheon plate is shaped as a segment of a sphere and the hole is located in the center. On the back side of the escutcheon plate are one or more metallic fingers which are normally integrally formed with the escutcheon. The fingers are generally bent inwardly toward the center of the hole slightly such that the escutcheon can be slipped over the pipe with the pipe being frictionally engaged by the fingers.
The second method of mounting an escutcheon, generally used as escutcheons surrounding faucets and the like, is through the use of a set screw. In this type of escutcheon a threaded drilling is provided in the escutcheon. A set screw is threaded into the drilling and after the escutcheon is placed over the fixture or pipe the set screw is tightened against the surface of the pipe.
Both of the above noted types of escutcheons have several disadvantages. Since both of these types of escutcheons utilize a metal to metal contact via either the fingers or the set screw the escutcheon is in direct contact with the pipe. Any movement or vibration in the pipe is therefore transferred to the escutcheon. The escutcheon in turn, if it is appropriately abutted against a wall, can transfer the vibration to the wall. In certain instances this can serve to amplify the vibration.
A second disadvantage of the above noted escutcheon relates to the ease in which they can be displaced from their proper position on the pipe against the wall. In those types of escutcheons employing metal fingers these fingers can lose their tension in time and become loose or they can frictionally abrade into the pipe and with time become loose by this mechanism. Those escutcheons employing set screws are subject to loosening of the screw through the vibrations in the pipe which results in allowing the escutcheon to move with respect to both the pipe and wall.
A third disadvantage of the presently used escutcheon is that there are gaps formed between the escutcheon and the pipe. If the escutcheon used is the type employing fingers, these gaps are between the fingers. If the escutcheon used is the type employing a set screw, generally the escutcheon contacts the pipe only at the point 180.degree. opposite where the set screw is located and at the set screw. The space along the sides of the hole in the escutcheon to both sides of the set screw is therefore open. Water condensing on the pipe inevitably will crawl along the surface of the pipe through the gaps or openings between the pipe and the escutcheons in the above noted escutcheons.
One of the above noted disadvantages is particularly acute when plastic pipe is used. The plastic pipe being relatively soft will be abraded or even punctured if a set screw is used and is subject to being easily abraded when fingers are used. Further, in those instances wherein metallic pipe passes through a metallic wall the use of metal to metal contact between the pipe, escutcheon and the wall can result in electrolysis or galvanic degradation of one or more of the pipe, escutcheon or the wall.
It is readily apparent that the presently used escutcheons while serving a decorative purpose in covering an uneven or oversized hole in a wall have certain defects which, if eliminated, would extend the useful life of the escutcheon and/or pipe and would result in suppression of transfer of noise from the pipe to a wall.